Lookalikes and more

As I promised to do a while back, I scanned a baby picture of me to compare it to a photo of Lucia at the same age:

Suzanna at 3 weeks

People tell me all the time that Lucia is my mini-me, but looking at these photos together, I'm not so sure anymore:

Lucia at 9.5 weeks (3 weeks adjusted)

I wish I had a 3-week photo of Ted to post for the sake of comparison, but the earliest one I have of him is his 1-year portrait. I did take pictures of the other kids when I took the one of Lucia, though, and I can't decide which one (if any) most resembles my own baby picture:

Jude at 9.5 weeks (3 weeks adjusted)

Isaac at 9.5 weeks (3 weeks adjusted)

Dahlia at 9.5 weeks (3 weeks adjusted)

In addition to posting new pics of the kids, I wanted to give everyone an update on Jude's echocardiogram: As I suspected, it showed no signs of a hole in his heart! Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that all is well with the little guy. For the past few days, both he and Isaac have been constipated, probably because of the rice cereal we'd been giving them to combat acid reflux. Since Jude no longer shows signs signs of reflux and Isaac's seems to be under control with twice-daily doses of Zantac, we've stopped the rice cereal on the boys (as well as giving them sugar water and using the infamous lubricated Q-tip method) in an effort to get things moving again. No luck yet, but I figure it's gotta come out sometime, right?

Despite the boys' troubles, the girls are still on rice cereal (and Zantac in Dahlia's case) for their acid reflux. Their systems seem to handle it just fine, and although they do eat less than the boys, they are steadily gaining weight: At the girls' 2-month appointment yesterday, Lucia weighed 8 lb. 6 oz. and Dahlia was 8 lb. 8 oz. Yes, the little runt has surpassed her sister by 2 ounces! I think that Lucia is going to have to stop looking in the mirror and get serious about eating if she is going to keep up with Dahlia.

Lucia admiring the baby in the mirror

As for me and Ted, we are exhausted but seeing a light at the end of the tunnel in the sleep-deprivation department. For the past week and a half, the babies have been sleeping at least 5 hours in a row, and on two nights, three of the four slept 7 hours! If we could just get all of them to agree to sleep that long at the same time, we'd be all set. I didn't let the lack of sleep prevent me from meeting with my Moms of Multiples group last night, though. I had such a great time talking to and laughing with them that I didn't get home until just before midnight (just in time to prevent the Civic from turning into a pumpkin!). The babies even got a play date out of it: This morning I met one of the triplet moms at a park, and we sat with the babies (making sure no one got too close to them) while her kids wore themselves out on the playground. It was exhilarating to be in the outside world and know that I can manage four babies somewhere else besides home and the pediatrician's office. I need to stop procrastinating and get around to ordering a quad stroller soon!

First trip to the park
(left to right: Lucia, Isaac, Dahlia, and Jude)